Lynnderella Fiddle Dee Dee Swatches and a dedication

 So today is going to be a mixed feeling post. I'm excited to show you swatches of Lynnderella's Fiddle Dee Dee.  This is a Limited Edition polish that is available in her Ebay store  I'd like to thank Lynn personally for sending me this polish because it has really helped me have a little sunshine in a dark part of the year for me. It's really stunning!

 I want to share with you guys a little about why it means so much to me before we get to the swatches.

Today marks the 4 year anniversary of my grandmother Madeline's passing.  It's still hard for me to talk about sometimes, although it's a little easier than before, so pardon me if I ramble a little bit. So many emotions hit me and I might lose focus lol, that and I'm probably a bit of an over-sharer.

 It was a rather traumatic time for me, as I was the only one of our direct family with her in her final moments. She had tripped on some stairs the night before while she was out at a Christmas party, gone to the ER, they had scheduled her to check in for surgery the next morning for a broken arm, and sent her home.

 I had to work and couldn't get off because we were short handed, so I was going to help her get ready to go to the hospital, and stop by on my way home, since my Dad and Aunt were going to be with her during the surgery. It was snowing and sleeting outside so they had left to be on their way to where we lived a little while before.

  She collapsed onto the floor when we were putting her jacket on before she was left. My previous career was in the medical field, so I switched into crisis mode. She had stopped breathing and had no pulse, so I called 911 and started CPR.  The EMTs came, but I pretty much knew they weren't going to be able to save her.

 It was pretty rough for me, because it was my job to help save people and take care of them.   I'd done CPR before and had someone not survive, but it's a different ballgame when it's your family. I felt like a failure.  That I had stopped CPR to call 911 and that had somehow caused it to not save her. Basically I blamed myself. I've accepted now it wasn't my fault, but for a long time I didn't. I had severe anxiety that I would compare to PTSD and couldn't sleep because I'd replay those moments over and over, to the point I wasn't sleeping and was having a hard time getting through the day without feeling like I couldn't breathe.
My Grandma Madeline taught me to never let anyone push me around and to always try to do what's right even when someone else thinks it's wrong. She taught me to always be strong and to try to be a lady unless the situation called for other avenues. She spoke her mind and she always tried to help others. I miss her terribly and think about her every day.

She loved her husband, her children, her grandchildren, and great-grandchildren and did everything she could to make us feel that we were important and special. She loved to dance. She made the best cheeseburgers . She loved to laugh. She loved Jack Daniels and Malibu Rum. She gave the best hugs. She was so proud of all of us no matter what. She helped give us opportunities that she didn't have herself as the oldest of 9 children. She loved red nail polish and she told me she always wanted a red rose tattoo. She was an awesome lady, who had great taste in clothes, and she was comfortable in a snazzy dressy outfit done up to the nines, or padding around her house in her front pocketed smock shirts. 

She was and always will be a driving force behind me and the way I live my life. So in her honor, today I wear Essie Scarlett O'Hara and my new LE Lynnderella Fiddle Dee Dee. I really feel like it's appropriate since this whole mani is made with polishes inspired by strong women, because that's what my Grandma was. I don't know where I'd be without her.  My story should show you that we all need hug and kiss our loved ones way more than we do, and always say what you feel, you don't know when those chances will be gone. Don't hold it in, we're not promised tomorrow, only today.  Treat others with kindness

It means a lot to me that this polish was sent to me, so thank you once again Lynn for making this day a little more tolerable and creating a beautiful polish.

My Grandma- check out her nails! Always some shade of red or pale pink!

  Fiddle Dee Dee  

multi-colored glitter polish with large squares, bars, butterflies, bars, diamonds, hexes, hearts, and stars.  There are metallic and holographic glitters. It's really beautiful if you can't tell by this bottle shot.

One coat of Fiddle Dee Dee and a little dabbing for glitter placement. Two coats of Seche Vite were used. I got a little crazy with the brush and ended up dragging some of the Essie on top of my pretty butterfly glitter :( 

I was just going to leave it as an accent nail but I had to have prettiness on ALL THE THINGS! Amazing right?!?

If you'd like to try and snag one of these lovelies please check out Lynn's Ebay store located here.

Happy Holidays

Different Dimension Santa Baby Collection and Bonus shade

With Christmas right around the corner, you know there's sure to be holiday collections rolling out from our wonderful Indie girls. I have for you today a beautiful collection from Missi at Different Dimension! A collection of 8 shades based on the cute holiday song "Santa Baby" and a bonus holiday shade!

"Think of all the fellas I haven't kissed." 

A really pretty 2 coat glitter with blue/teal, and purple holographic glitters. This is two coats over Beauty Secrets base coat and one coat Seche Vite. Applied very well, not clumpy or thick at all like I'd expected with how tiny some of the glitters are.

"Santa Baby"

One coat was used over Borghese Pistacchio. A pretty mix of Red, White, and pastel pink hexes, red and white microglitters and tiny holo glitters 

Out of focus shot to show the sparklies!!! So pretty!

"I've been an angel all year".  

A pale ice blue base with white, silver and light blue holographic microglitters,  This is two thin coats over FingerPaints Paper Mâchè and Seche Vite topcoat.

"I've been an awful good girl"

Easily one of my favorites out of this collection. Pale pinky white base, with a pink shimmer and small holo pink hex glitters, light purple holo glitter, and holo microglitters in the same light purple and pink color scheme.

"Hurry down the chimney tonight"

Clear base with metallic red and pearly white shreds with matching red and white bar glitters. This is one coat and a little dabbing for shred placement over FingerPaints Black Expressionism. I'm not generally a fan of shred glitter, but I do like this polish for it's versatility. You could use this one for Christmas manis, Valentine's Day or Independence day also.  I experienced no curling of the glitters , and other than me being OCD about some of the shred's locations, it applied beautifully!

"Out of space convertible"

Black jelly base with tiny blue, pink and purple holo glitters. To the untrained eye, could pass as a Butter London Black Knight Dupe. Again, no clumps with application even though it's chock full of     these little beauties. Two different shots one shaded, and one full on out of focus sun to showcase the holo effect.  This is a buildable jelly opaque at 3 coats, but for this photo is only one over FP Black Expressionism. 

**Sparkle Shot!!!!**

"Sign your 'x' on the line"

Clear base with large silver and smaller gold shreds. This is another pretty versatile polish. Could be used over just about anything to liven it up with some classy bling. One coat and some dabbing of the bigger silver shreds over Wet N Wild Saved By the Blue.

" I'll wait up for you dear"

Clear base with metallic green and red glitters. Very Christmas-y, applied like a dream. One coat over Ulta Salon Formula High Rollr and then matted. I love the simplicity of this one. I will be wearing this combo to Holiday functions for sure!

And now for the bonus shade!!

"Christmahanakwanzika"

Named for  three major winter holidays, Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanza. Christmahanakwanzika is a glitter bomb, with green, yellow-gold, red, black, and blue hex glitters with red and green microglitters. A LOT going on in this polish! I chose to just wear it on it's own over Beauty Secrets basecoat. This is two coats and one coat of Seche Vite. 

This collection gets an A++ from me. I love how all the polishes really look like considerable thought was put into the glitters used in each one. The quality of each polish is outstanding, and I had no application issues other than just placing a few of the shredded glitters. Each shade retails for $8.50 or you can pick up the entire Santa Baby Collection for $60.00 at Different Dimension's Etsy shop here, . The shop also offers cuticle balms and lotion bars to help keep your lovelies lookin' lovely. Make sure to check out the DD Facebook Page to get the latest updates on sales and new collections!

This collection was sent to me in return for an honest review.

Rainbow Honey Sakura Matsuri Collection

 Well hey there! Today I've got some great swatches from the Rainbow Honey Sakura Matsuri Collection. I got these from a pre-order offered here on Rainbow Honey's website. It's a set of 5 polishes and with the complete set purchase you also receive 2 cuticle balms. I picked Sakura Matsuri and the Summer Juice for mine. :)

Sakura Matsuri Collection- L to R- Ephemeral, Koi Pond, Sakura Matsuri, Wistful, and Hanami.

 This is two coats of Ephemeral. She's a soft pink shimmer with blue and purple hues, as well as gold, pink, and turquoise microglitters.  Very pretty once it's on the nail and I couldn't quite get my camera to capture microglitters because the effect is so faint.  I had some application trouble with this one and I'll show you why below. The outcome you see above was achieved using a ELF eyeshadow brush dipped in acetone and lightly brushed over the polish before topcoat to smooth it out. 

 Ephemeral was super goopy straight out of the bottle for me. I'm sure if I would have added thinner before application, it might have turned out better and I might not have had to take the extra step of smoothing it out. But I'm really not going to be a blogger who doesn't give you the honest truth about products I try, and let's be honest, not everyone knows about polish thinner.  I didn't for the longest time either. Overall, it's a pretty polish and I might give it another go after I've had a chance to thin it out.

 Two coats of Wistful, a very pretty light kind of golden-green with a pink shimmering microglitter.  The effect in this polish and Ephemeral are so difficult to capture, you can see it with your eyes, but for me even with the Super-Macro setting on my new camera it wouldn't pick up.  This polish also needed the smoothing method from above before topcoat as it was pretty thick. 

 I think this one's going to need thinner also before I use it again.  I'm not totally against using thinner. But I can't see the need to use it on a brand-new polish. No biggie it's still pretty!

  

This is one coat and some dabbing of the collection's namesake, Sakura Matsuri over Ephemeral. Sakura Matsuri has pale pink and white flowers and holographic glitter. Can you see the sparkles in the bottle?!  Beautiful little rainbows on your fingertips! I didn't really have to fish to get the flowers out and onto the nail either so Sakura Matsuri gets a big thumbs up from me!!

Next up is Hanami. I used one coat over Wistful in the picture above.  Hanami is a very pale pink shimmery base with rose, pink, white, and iridescent glitters. I probably could have chosen a better base to showcase the white glitters more, but I was really trying to see how well all the colors worked together in this collection.  I know for me it's a pain to invest in a collection and then you spend more time trying to figure out what else you can pair it with out of your stash since most collections individual polishes don't end up working well with each other. 

 Now for the one I was the most excited to try! This is 2 coats and some dabbing of Koi Pond over just base coat.  These glitters in black, silver, blues, greens, orange, and turquoise really do give the sense of a Japanese Koi Pond. I really like the balance of the glitters, especially the orange, it really does look like a bright orange Koi swimming beneath murky pond waters.

 Finally since Koi Pond is mostly meant to be a layering polish, I put one coat over L'Oreal's Greycian Goddess. With so many different glitters in the polish, you'll have so many options as to what you can potentially layer it over. 

  I will say overall I'm in love with the glitters in this collection. They applied wonderfully and you can tell there was thought behind the combinations in the glitters chosen.  I do really like Ephemeral and Wistful, but the shimmering effect just doesn't quite do it for me. They're very faint but still pretty. The application with them wasn't the greatest but something I guess I can deal with.

This collection retails for $50.00 plus shipping at Rainbow Honey's online shop.  You can also check out Rainbow Honey's FB page here and stay up-to-date with the shop's news and updates.

The products featured above were purchased by me for review.